She was much depressed by the ground floor
addition which might have enlarged her dining-room, but which was
made into a sitting-room for Robin and her future governess.
"And that is in ADDITION to her schoolroom which might have been
thrown into the drawing-room--besides the new bedrooms which I
needed so much," she said.
"The new nurse, who is a highly respectable person," explained
Benby, "could not have been secured if she had not known that
improvements were being made. The reconstruction of the third floor
will provide suitable accommodations."
The special forte of Dowson, the new nurse, was a sublimated
respectability far superior to smartness. She had been mystically
produced by Benby and her bonnets and jackets alone would have
revealed her selection from almost occult treasures. She wore
bonnets and "jackets," not hats and coats.
"In the calm days of Her Majesty, nurses dressed as she does. I do
not mean in the riotous later years of her reign--but earlier--when
England dreamed in terms of Crystal Palaces and Great Exhibitions.
She can only be the result of excavation," Coombe said of her.
She was as proud of her respectability as Andrews had been of her
smartness. This had, in fact, proved an almost insuperable obstacle
to her engagement. The slice of a house, with its flocking in and
out of chattering, smart people in marvellous clothes was not the
place for her, nor was Mrs.
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